ActionAid believes that all children should have an equal chance to thrive.

Your sponsorship will make a huge difference to a girl or boy in need – ensuring they have enough to eat, an education and hope for the future.

As their only sponsor, you’ll have a special relationship with your sponsored child. You’ll receive photos, handwritten messages and regular updates from their community. 

You can choose where you sponsor a child, or you can leave it to our team to decide; they know which communities are in greatest need. It only takes a few minutes to become a child sponsor, but you could change a child’s life forever.

What happens when I sponsor a child?

As soon as you sign up to be a sponsor, we’ll send you a welcome pack with a photo of the child you’re sponsoring and their story so far. And that’s just the start of the journey you’ll go on together.

You’ll get two handwritten messages a year from your child telling you about them and their life – they might be letters, drawings, or postcards – plus detailed updates about how they’re getting on from our staff in their country.

You can write back to your sponsored child. Over time you’ll get a new photo at special milestones so you can see them grow and thrive.

Read our frequently asked questions

What will my child sponsorship pay for?

  • Action Aid Porridge Feeding Program at Saunyama Primary School in Nyanga District ActionAid’s feeding programme is supplying 11 primary schools with enough porridge for lunch three days a week.

    Food

    Nutritious meals for children and seeds and livestock for families to grow their own food

  • Students Abigail (R) and Purity (L) in class at school in West Pokot, Kenya.

    Education

    Schoolbooks, fees, equipment and even a whole new school building in the sponsored child’s community

  • Puthy, a secure livelihood of model farmers thanks to ActionAid intervention.

    Clean water

    Building wells, purifying water sources, and better sanitation facilities

  • Improving birthing centers to strengthen communities

    Healthcare

    Medical and dental clinics, basic medical supplies and health education

Harriet (22) from Uganda was a sponsored child whose life changed thanks to child sponsorship with ActionAid. She is now a young woman studying at a local university.

Robert Asiimwe/ActionAid

Harriet's experience as a sponsored child

As a sponsored child, I had the opportunity to write to my sponsor.

ActionAid organised special days for all the children to write to their sponsors which were filled with fun events that each of us looked forward to.

It was a new and interesting experience for us to communicate with people in a different country. I had found a friend to whom I could tell my dreams and aspirations. I felt a personal responsibility to pursue my dreams."

Start my sponsorship

How is my sponsorship money spent?

  • 80% of the donations we receive through child sponsorship goes overseas.
  • 20% is spent in the UK on raising awareness and finding more supporters.
     

Of the 80% overseas gift:  
 

  • 70% goes directly to your sponsored child’s community or, if there is an exceptional need such as a life-threatening emergency, another community within their country.  
  • 30% is used to fund vital projects in other countries around the world where we work, and running child sponsorship so that you can receive messages from your sponsored child, and hear how your gift is changing lives

I'm ready to sponsor a child

What ActionAid does

Around the world, women and children are affected the most by poverty. From the moment they are born, girls especially face inequalities and injustice in almost every aspect of their lives.

ActionAid puts women and children at the centre of our work across 45 countries. We make sure girls go to and stay in school, we work with communities to end gender-based violence, and we train women in the skills they need to earn a living.

We also help women and communities prepare for and recover from disasters, at a time when they can be at their most vulnerable. We demand action at local, national and international level. We don’t walk away until we’ve achieved lasting change.

Telma Paulina is a student at the San Juan Villa Nueva School in Guatemala, where ActionAid runs a child sponsorship program

Karin Schermbrucker/ActionAid

Top image: Krishla, from Nepal, received support from ActionAid following the Nepal earthquake of 2015. Karin Schermbrucker/ActionAid

Page updated 8 August 2023